Summary
- The Vatican City released featured artists for its upcoming Holy See pavilion showcase for this year’s Venice Biennale
- The lineup includes 25 musicians, poets, architects, filmmakers and artists exploring the contemplative power of sound
Vatican City’s Holy See Pavilion will host music’s top talents for its sound-based presentation at next month’s Venice Biennale, featuring works by FKA Twigs, Dev Hynes, Brian Eno and Patti Smith.
Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers, the exhibition, titled The Ear is the Eye of the Soul is based on the life and legacy of Benedictine nun Saint Hildegarde of Bingen, a medieval abbess, poet, healer and composer, also known as the patron saint of writers and musicians. “The exhibition takes the form of a sonic prayer,” reads the project statement, “a call to the contemplative act of listening.”
The exhibition will straddle Venice at two venues: The Mystical Garden of Discalced Carmelites in Cannaregio, and the Complesso di Santa Maria Ausiliatrice in Castello. The Garden will host new sonic commissions by Twigs, Eno and filmmaker Jim Jarmusch which channel Hildegard’s chants, writing and images. A site-specific instrument by Soundwalk Collective, the co-presenting group, tunes into the sounds of the 17th-century convent and its surrounding gardens. A series of wind chime installations by Precious Okoyomon will also be on view.
Crosstown, the Castello complex reimagines “scriptoriums,” medieval rooms where scribes copied and illuminated manuscripts, through a contemporary lens. At the heart of this space stands German author and director, Alexander Kluge’s, final work, described by the organizers as “a towering 12-station film and image installation unfolding across three rooms.” Nearby, Tatiana Bilbao will unveil new monastery architecture beside a living archive of multilingual texts, building off of pavilion’s 2025 presentation for the architecture biennale.
Additional names on view include Otobong Nkanga, Ilda David, Kali Malone, Moor Mother, Kali Malone and Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst. The Ear is the Eye of the Soul will be on view in Venice from May 9 to November 22.
